Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say how much I appreciate the bravery of the member for Riverina in raising this topic. I don't think there's any person better qualified to talk on chaotic airport and aviation industry policy than the previous minister for transport. Chaotic airport and aviation policy is exactly what those opposite delivered in their decade-long time in power.

They gave billions of taxpayer dollars to Qantas for nothing in return, with no strings attached. They stood by as Virgin collapsed into administration, only for it to be snatched up by foreign private equity, with a third of its workforce laid off, and it's now seeking to sell its share. They oversaw the mass outsourcing of jobs and labour hire mess that drove down wages and conditions across the sector, which was one of the prime drivers of the same job, same pay legislation. They commissioned the Harris review into the Sydney airport, only to spend almost two years sitting on it, leaving it for us to have to sort out now. They introduced an early retirement scheme for air traffic controllers—and guess what? There is now a shortage of air traffic controllers, causing airport delays up and down the country. They cut JobKeeper to Dnata workers and left those families in the lurch and laid off without pay. They couldn't afford to support Dnata workers, but they could afford to pay $30 million for a piece of land at the Leppington Triangle, which was later valued by my department of infrastructure at only $3 million. How's that for chaos in aviation policy? They wasted taxpayer money on cheap ticket policy to try to encourage us to travel but failed to order the vaccines that would have prevented the industry from having to be shut down again. I remember what aviation policy was like under those opposite: it was a mess of broken promises and empty slogans.

I stood with Virgin workers at Melbourne Airport at the start of the pandemic as they faced down the prospect of losing their jobs. I stood with Qantas workers at Parliament House after the policies of those opposite saw their work illegally outsourced. I haven't forgotten how one of the workers asked: 'How do I explain to my three girls that it's not whether you do a good job or not; it's just that they can bring someone else in to do it for cheaper than you?' Under those opposite, that's what aviation policy was. It became a reality for many workers across this country. The gall of those opposite to bring up this MPI despite knowing that history is simply jaw dropping.

Unlike those opposite, we have a proud legacy when it comes to aviation policy. With the now Prime Minister as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the last Labor government supported the growth of aviation into an industry of $7.5 billion a year directly employing some 49,000 Australians and supporting a further half a million jobs throughout the economy. We published Australia's first ever Aviation White Paper to guide the industry's future growth, with measures to address skills shortages, lack of investment in new facilities and inadequate long-term planning, and we took a leading role in ensuring that workers across the sector were treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. The trouble is that in the 10 years since we lost office aviation policy in this country has gone backwards.

Under the Albanese Labor government, we're determined to restore good order and good planning to Australian aviation. We've completed targeted consultation on the Harris review, and we'll have more to say on that soon. We're fixing the workplace mess that enabled the race to the bottom in wages and conditions, including through the legislation that has been introduced this week. We're hiring more air traffic controllers at Airservices Australia to fill the shortages that have been left by those opposite. We have got a tough cop on the beat, as we've seen through recent ACCC actions. We're delivering a new Aviation White Paper to chart the future of the industry out to 2050, including by ensuring competition and productivity.

Frankly, I can't believe that those opposite got the member for Riverina to do this MPI. In a week when they're attempting to manufacture a controversy around an air service agreement with Qatar, why would they put up a former minister who sat on a similar request for four years only to add a few more flights on the proviso of a new antidumping condition? As the member for Riverina said, quoted in this morning's Australian:

We can't have an airline with very deep pockets undercut, undercut, undercut and … (then) people go to them as opposed to an airline that may be majority Australian-owned and unable to compete with this unfair undercutting of prices.

That's the member for Riverina. That's what the member for Riverina has said, a member who, when faced with a request from Qatar Airways, sat on that for four years—

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